IF, folks decide to kiteboard be sure to checkout color radar, real time wind and hazard forecast carefully. More ideas about this at: http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=130 Last year some guys even had laptops by the beach on aircards to monitor incoming squalls. They picked launches with large gaps between squalls and feeder bands. If it looked like something was coming in, they came in and secured a long time before any change in wind, temperature happened. Having airhorns to warn riders would be a good idea for those that choose to risk it. Even with color radar and visual observation your risk of serious injury goes up in such weather, obviously.

This is SERIOUS stuff guys. There was a rider killed in Utah and another killed in Okinawa by violent weather both quite recently. The fatality in Okinawa may have been related to a nearby Typhoon (hurricane in this hemisphere). This sort of weather is full of downbursts. Lots more about this hazard at: http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=801

A sad record from last summer.

See those feeder bands, the ones with the bright colors? Those can toss out violent gust spikes, 20, 30 to 50 + knots above background windspeed. Guys have already died and come close to it establishing the hazards of riding in unstable and tropical weather systems. Try to learn from the past or be fated to repeat it. More about an EARLY case of storm related lofting and injury at: http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=210

Experienced kites/windsurfers in Europe go out on windsurfers when excessively gusty wind comes along. It is harder to get lofted 100 ft. plus on a windsurfer.

no offense intended, but hope that puppy makes it all the way north with some real nice 20-30mph winds. sunday would be good.

Absolutely, real nice winds for some folks would be good. Some of us will likely take a bad hit from this and other storms and some guys will have useable riding conditions. You might get hit by derecho's* that miss the south. That is the way of the world.

Just take the time to scope things out first to verify that squalls aren't embedded in things. You will recall the number of squalls, tornados produced by tropical cyclones as they eased inland in the past northward throught the USA.

There is an interesting article about "Great Lakes Hurricanes" from the NWS, a quote from which appears below:
"Windstorm: An intense tropical cyclone moving up from the Gulf thru eastern Texas (causing great damage in Texas), along the Missip. Valley and thence Newd across Ill & Mich, passing W & NW of Detroit with gale force winds and gusts to 65 mph from 10:18 AM - 2:30 PM & gusts to 75 mph 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM (see envelope back of book for newspaper clippings). "

Also, be on the lookout for derecho's*. " (pronounced similar to "deh-RAY-cho" in English or pronounced phonetically as "") is a widespread and long lived windstorm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms." These are NOT THAT UNCOMMON in inland areas.
"How strong are derecho winds?

By definition winds in a derecho must meet the National Weather Service criterion for severe wind gusts (greater than 57 mph) at most points along the derecho path. In the stronger derecho events winds can exceed 100 mph. For example, as a derecho roared through northern Wisconsin on July 4, 1977, winds of 115 mph were measured. More recently, the derecho which swept across Wisconsin and Lower Michigan during the early morning hours of May 31, 1998 produced a measured wind gust of 128 mph in eastern Wisconsin and estimated gusts up to 130 mph in Lower Michigan."

I went out tonight after work for a while. I first looked at the color radar and noticed a large, 70 mile plus long corridor free of squalls. The area to the south over the Keys and Miami-Dade County was quite a different matter as you can see.

I went off of Delray underneath the "95" symbol below West Palm Beach.

I also checked the realtime wind on ikitesurf.com to see if any unstable high wind gusts or direction changes were going on. Didn't see any here, this station reads about 4 to 5 mph higher than Delray by the way. So, between the color radar, the long free corridor of squalls and fairly stable realtime winds I had at it.

Different story further south in Miami. How would you like to be rigged for winds at around 4 pm, say with a 14 m. Lets say you stay out until 5.30 pm to get spiked by a 50 mph+ squall gust? You might get some great air but then there is the landing to think about, well inland and likely against something hard.

Things went off at Crandon this evening as well as well as throughout the Keys with dangerous gusts in frequent squalls.

Last edited by RickI on Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

Rick, can you point me towards a site that i can get a radar image for earlier this evening.....I want to see what we were hit with this evening...say 6:30 - 7:00....

I checked the radar as i ran out the door late today.....looked clear from MIA past Jupiter....with a line that looked well offshore 40Miles?...looked like it should have skirted us at Palm Beach Island....but it didn't....

watched some clouds get dark and light around the edge....real low....ugly looking shit....4 of us hit the beach within a minute of each other.....one assisted landing and 3 to leash....12M's & an 8M

It went from about 20-25 to 50+ in less then a minute......and lasted a few minutes....

spooky....haven't been that close or hit that hard in a long time....lesson learned....again....

I hope everybody ridng the last few days in Fl has faired well.....there have been some ugly spikes

Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out the GIS NWS application that MAY have fairly good resolution archived radar images. There is an internet site but the resolution is very poor. I normally try to grab images from the following two sites as soon as possible:

I just checked and it looks like there is something nasty blowing through your area now, but I can't find traces from 3 or so hours ago.

I did catch some nasty spikes on ikitesurf at Jupiter that probably represent what hit you guys.

I am glad you guys were watching approaching weather and reacted before the squall gusts hit. It is always good to look to where the clouds are coming from on a regular basis and to note any changes. The clouds that brought 50 mph gusts last night were not that evil looking at all. They were just a bit darker from what had been blowing through all day.

Checking color radar before you go out helps but as you experienced things can change. I check the color radar on my telephone just before setting up and on the odd break.

Riding in areas under the influence of tropical weather systems, particularly hurricanes always carries higher risk. The internet aids can work to reduce it but some will still be there. If nothing else the riding conditions can be fairly challenging. All that heavy irregular surf in our area combined with pronounced lulls and gusts even without squalls.

Last edited by RickI on Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

There was a large gap between squall lines and feeder bands on color radar and satellite imagery today so it looked OK to go kiteboarding. The realtime winds were fairly steady in the area as well. I went out in the morning and came in around 2 pm. The account above describes some powerful squalls that came through later on. Some photos from the morning follow from Delray:

Some nice surf was running.

Stacy from Best gets ready to head out.

It wasn't all fun and games however. The conditions were fairly challenging with strong gusts, extended lulls and a lot of ragged, large irregular surf to try to pile through. I missed seeing the accident but I understand one very experienced rider dropped his kite on the water, a wave may have washed him into his lines and his kite, a 5 m, relaunched. I understand his ankle was broken as a result. At least it wasn't severely cut which can happen.

Hurricane riding has its risks, ranging from TOO MANY with squalls to a higher level of hazard than normal sessions even with weather planning, monitoring, safety gear, careful kite size selection, etc..

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